Up-A-Creek,
Greetings! By now I’m willing to bet that none of the students and only some of the mentors remember me from when I was on the team several years ago. That being said, I’ve never stopped being a fan of you all. I don’t keep up with the FRC as zealously as I once did, but I decided to check in on the season this week and saw you all won the Championship. To say I was surprised was an understatement. I don’t know if anyone on the team looks at CD much these days, but in case someone does I wanted to write and say congratulations to you all and share a few thoughts.
After the initial shock of the Einstein results I sat down and thought about my time on the team. Though I loved my tenure there, it’s been a while since I’ve reflected on it. Ultimately, I realized that the reason I think so fondly of those days are not because of the robots we built or the awards we won, but because of the lessons I learned and the energy that everyone brought to the team. I hope that these are things you all will ultimately take away from your time on the team as well.
My first experience with 1619 was visiting for an ice cream social shortly before I joined back in sophomore year of high school. I was struck by how friendly and knowledgeable everyone on the team was. I knew nothing about engineering, but Up-A-Creek Robotics still seemed like something I wanted to be a part of. I decided to hop in and it turned out to be an exciting year for the team. Things were different back then for sure. We split time between our school and a company that would let us use their cafeteria when the build season dragged on. We had a yearly contest to design the shirt logo. That year, though, things began to change. We won our first regional and brought home our first blue banner, and then won another two weeks later. We capped off the year by going to St. Louis for the first time ever and reached the semis in our division at the Championship. We were obviously hoping to go further, but ultimately we were excited to have just made it.
Next year brought more change. Thanks to a donation we received a small building we could call our own. We decided to start and sponsor FLL and FTC teams and run engineering summer camps. We decided it was time to design a permanent logo. And that year brought even more success. We won Chairman’s for the first time and made it back to the semis of our division in the final year at St. Louis. Though we came up short again, the team felt different. Teams outside of Colorado started to recognize us in the pits. I remember specifically that we were standing behind 148’s drive team in line for the practice field at the Championship and they told us we had a cool robot. I couldn’t believe it.
My final year led to even more growth. More students than ever before started showing up interested in joining the team. We decided to overhaul the leadership structure of the team and worked through the rough spots together. We completely redesigned what our pit looked like. That year we won Colorado for the third year in a row and hosted a scrimmage for the teams from the state attending the Championship. We had high hopes for reaching Einstein after seeding first in our division and picking our alliance. And then, after a careful night of strategizing, we ended up being swept in the quarterfinals by the eighth alliance. I unfortunately had to graduate after that year, and wondered where the team would go after I left.
Turns out it was nowhere but up. The summer after I graduated, you all won IRI. The year after I left, you all went to Einstein for the first time ever. And now, five years on, you all captained your own alliance to win it all. Though I am no longer affiliated with the team, I am amazed at what you all have accomplished. Here’s to hoping you guys went to the local Red Robin after all was said and done and ordered so many root beer floats that they ran out of ice cream. That was always a fun tradition.
And yet, despite all the success this team has had, I wanted to share that for me it was never really about the robot or the awards it would win. It was never about the compliments we would get at regionals. Heck, for me it was never really about the engineering experience either. Nowadays I don’t even work in a STEM field. For me, the thing I’m always going to remember most about the team was the effort and the energy that everyone brought to the building on a daily basis. It was the willingness to learn from mistakes and the constant desire to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Whether it was the build team, the electrical team, the scouting team, or even the Chairman’s team, there was a constant environment of positivity and always wanting to bring our best to whatever we did. That’s what I loved most about my time on the team. It’s the reason that I’m always going to be a 1619 fan.
I would say based on how this year went that attitude is still there in Longmont. So I encourage you all: Keep it up. Bring that attitude with you not only to next season, but to whatever you end up doing in this life. Bring it to college, bring it to your job. Even if you’re like me and aren’t really interested in STEM, it is a resource that will benefit you wherever you go next.
Congratulations to you all, you’ve earned it. Go forth and do great things in the future.
Signed,
-An Alum